VMware cannot install Network Adapters / Drivers

[scrublord]

My VMware installation spontaneously stopped working properly, and now my VMs can no longer connect to each other or the internet. Their network device drivers are seemingly broken, and reinstallation or repair do nothing to solve the problem. 

This has been brought up several times before without resolution - 

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/Installer-stuck-at-Installing-Network-Drivers/m-p/2855346

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMware-Workstation-Player/host-only-adapter-driver-does-not-seem-to-be-running/td-p/2829544

Here is some info about my setup:

Host OS - Windows 10 Pro

VMware Version - Workstation 16 Pro

Virtual Machine Operating Systems - Windows 10 Enterprise and Ubuntu 18

The VMs are set to the "NAT" configuration.

When I try to reinstall, repair or just restore defaults in the Virtual Network Editor, VMware gets stuck whenever "Installing network adapters" or "Installing virtual network drivers"

 

As you can see, there is an unresponsive process called "VMware network install library executable". If I use the Task Manager to open the file location, I see that this corresponds to an executable called "vnetlib64":

Eventually, after several minutes, the process seemingly just quits without any further communications to me, and the setup is left unchanged: 

Checking for the virtual adapters in the Device Manager, I can see that they are broken:

I can also see that their drivers are either not present or not working:

I don't see any sign of anything VMware related under my Network Connections:

Previously, a person called "continuum" suggested checking the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\ROOT\VMWARE\0000
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Enum\ROOT\VMWARE\0001

to see if the install was complete, so here are screenshots of that:

My "vminst" file in %tmp% is MASSIVE, but here are the latest entries:

moderator edit by wila: Moved the log snippet in a spoiler

Attachment(s)

vminst.zip   515 KB 1 version

[RaSystemlord]

EDIT: To make the text a bit more detailed

I cannot give you a specific answer to this. But about the other of your links - discussion ended in Windows 11 related problem. I did verify that the Microsoft delivered Windows 11 worked just fine in VMware on that date. It is a DEV version and it seems to change many times a week. I later tried the new install from ISO-file and that worked very well, too, in VMware - however, this isn't really testing VMware, but it is more about if the suggested way to create a correct ISO-file works as it should be ... still talking about Windows 11 from strictly Microsoft sources.

I understand that your case NOW is not about Windows 11.

However, if Network adapters are failing to install, there are many generic reasons why an install in Windows fails. Typically, it is not related to an application, but to a certain Windows instance ... but we don't know for sure.

The generic reasons include:

- versioning. Not sure what the 16 version needs to be with that particular Windows 10 version. Needs to be checked or taken the latest one.

- Windows Feature Upgrades do break applications. This is a Day-One-Problem of Windows 10. Have you done a reinstall AFTER the feature upgrade or any update to make sure?

- Windows Install may be broken. Not sure how to fix that, however, log files or Event Viewer should indicate if the installer itself fails. As for fixing, I'm sure google and microsoft will tell you how. In my cases, the matter has been about an outdated Windows Update resulting in an outdated Install software.

- you have manually tried to correct the situation. See log-files AND Event Viewer to find out, why it failed.

- potentially, any other application can break Windows. This may be far-fetched in this case, but if you have another computer with a vanilla Windows 10, you might want to try it out, for testing, if it isn't useful. This would test at least that your VMware install .exe isn't corrupted.

- failing to install using Run As Administrator during install. Being an Administrator is NOT enough in some cases. (linked into registry matters)

- one way of how Windows gets broken, is to get wrong permissions in registry. No idea, how that might have happened, but that is a possibility, if some installation programs have not behaved correctly

- you may have some security software, which does more than you think. Some anti-virus software may have kind-of stealth fire-walling, which will block network related things. In corporate computers, this might come as a surprise to the user ... information may be shared as need to know -basis.

The above is in no particular order. Personally, I would check Event Viewer first to check for failures.

[scrublord]

Thanks, I shall go spelunking and see what I find. I agree that the application is probably not the issue.

[scrublord]

So looking around I noticed my normal network adapters behaving strangely. I did a "reset network settings", and it removed the drivers on the adapters - no problem, I backed them all up beforehand. What was weird, though, was that windows would not let me install or update the adapters because of "Code 56":

At this point I concluded that there was something very wrong, so I went for a full system reset. After that, I reinstalled VMware, and it worked! The installation went smoothly, didn't hang or crash when installing the drivers, and when it was finished the virtual adapters it installed worked!

So yes, RaSystemlord totally called it. It was definitely something snarled up besides the installer!

[RaSystemlord]

Great that you got it solved, although I couldn't give an exact solution .

[stefy77]

I have installed Vmware player 16 on windows 10 the networw controllers are not loading.
in the peripheral panel it says awaiting configuration

[RaSystemlord]

 

Please refer to my previous answer to this question. It is a rather comprehensive list of choices. Some of them are more likely than others in your particular case, but I cannot speculate on that.

[stefy77]

I have installed the windows in a new hardisk from scratch and I have installed vmware so I have nothing to restore then in my case I do not even find the modules in the network settings the rest I have the same problem encountered.
The emulated machine is able to surf the internet but cannot share the address of my emulated mac and the windows

[RDPetruska]

---

 wrote:

I have installed the windows in a new hardisk from scratch and I have installed vmware so I have nothing to restore then in my case I do not even find the modules in the network settings the rest I have the same problem encountered.
The emulated machine is able to surf the internet but cannot share the address of my emulated mac and the windows

---

So, what exactly is your issue, if the virtual machine is able to connect to the internet/network?

Also, it is a violation of Apple's licensing to run their OS on non-Apple hardware.  We cannot help you with a virtualized macOS here, or VMware could get into legal trouble.

[stefy77]

That I need to launch a server from the mac this creates an ip address which was then read by the windows. A few days ago I changed hardisk with the old system everything worked and vmware everything worked without errors.
With this error the mac navigates but if you share an ip address from the mac to windows it cannot read it.

[RaSystemlord]

 

If this "emulated mac" means running MAC OS on Windows, you got the answer above. You cannot get answers here.

If you have something else, can you explain:
- what computers you have on which OS

- where you have VMware?
- what VM virtual computers you have?

- what is the networking infra between physical computers and virtual computers?

- what are you trying to do, in terms of networking, between the physical/virtual computers?
- obviously, which tests, related to any networking, do work (and which don't)

[stefy77]

From the mac I launch this command
java -jar B4iBuildServer.jar
is a server that communicates the b4i program in windows to the xcode program in mac the documentation is here
https://www.b4x.com/android/forum/threads/local-mac-builder-installation.46402/page-10#posts
The launched server creates two type ip addresses

Build server is ready

https://192.168.1.7:51042

http://192.168.1.7:51041

now this ip address with port 51042
It is inserted in the b4i program that is installed in windows and connects the windows with the b4i and xcode program that is on the mac.
Now with the old installation of the old Hardisk that did not give any installation errors while in the new one the windows did not sell the server
if I launch /192.168.1.7/test on mac it replies on windows no.
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[stefy77]

The Programs used are
Big Sur -> Mac
vmware 16
Windows 10 latest update

[RaSystemlord]

 

Based on your description, VMware isn't installed anywhere. So, why do you ask here? Probably you have something else, but what exactly?

See my questions above.

[stefy77]

YES I HAVE INSTALLED VMWARE TO EMUALRE THE MAC bICSURE.
in the past I HAVE DONE EVERYTHING INSTALLATION AND IT HAS ALWAYS WORKED.
The difference is that installing the networ drives always went well.
In this case it fails to install them with information pending configuration

 

I am thinking that the network drives are not compatible with the latest windows update

 

I have the same problem as the photo posted in this post

 

 

[RaSystemlord]

 

Although your answer does not seem to be explicit, it seems that you are running Apple OS in Windows by using VMware.

As a Moderator already explained, you cannot get help here. EULA licensing policies are a matter of concern with responsible software companies.

[stefy77]

I did not know this. My problem at the end concerns the installation of the vmware networ drivers of windows 10 that is not successful is there a manual procedure to install the drivers and solve the problem indicated above? in this page the solution was to restore the previous windows configuration but in my case the windows was installed from scratch and then I installed wmaware.
When it comes to the network drivers, the installation bar is waiting for the operation to fail and the drivers are installed with a warning awaiting configuration as you can see in the photos in this post.
Is there a solution to this problem?
I tried to uninstall vmware and repair the package without finding a solution

[RaSystemlord]

 

OK, with the matter of getting VMware networking to work in Windows 10 install. There was already a mention that you are able to access Internet from a VM - so networking works and is configured for Internet access, too.

As for getting errors in VMware install, this should not happen. I did provide a list of possibilities above. There were many items to check.

The solution above was a reinstall of VMware software. It is a very common problem with Windows 10 - it's, generally speaking, a Day 1 problem of Win 10 OS ... it does break applications, escpecially with Feature Upgrades. The solution is rather simple, a reinstall of the application. You say that you tried this, but did you try this AFTER any upgrade/update of Win10.

Also, are you using the very latest version VMware? If not, please do so.

I don't think there is a generic problem with Windows 10 & VMware, preventing a decent install. It must be specific to your system ... for those, please refer the list in my previous answer.

As for manual possibilities, at least with Workstation Pro, you ARE able to create Network Drivers & networks of your own choice. That can be done in GUI and is rather easy. To my knowledge, you can install Pro version, use it for 30 days and after that Network GUI stays operational for VMware Player use (which is also installed with Pro).

[stefy77]

In my pc everything has always worked.
A few days ago I switched from a 128 gb hardisk to 1 Tb and I made windows setup after I installed vmware when I get home I give you the windows 10 version installed.
OK then I try to install the full version and see if I can fix it.
Thanks for help

[RaSystemlord]

OK, Windows 10 versio as such doesn't mean much, because you can only slightly control it - it will Update & Upgrade when it wants to, in a semi-automatic way no matter what you do. I mean, if you use the very latest from VMware - all versions should be OK.

When you create manually Networks, you will hopefully get, at least, a more explicit error message if it doesn't work.

[Carlos Alonso Alva Herbozo]

I have two virtual adapters that get installed along with FortiClient VPN. I currently use FortiVPN to connect remotely to my company's network using authentication and an assigned IP address. Now, I am facing the same problem with VMware as the original poster. My main question is: if I perform a network reset, would it affect the FortiClient VPN adapters?